As businesses increasingly rely on computers for their daily operations, managing the vast amount of business information generated and processed has become a significant challenge. Most large businesses have a wide variety of application programs managing large volumes of data stored on many different types of storage devices across various types of networks and operating system platforms. These storage devices can include tapes, disks, optical disks, and other types of storage devices and often include a variety of products that can be produced by different vendors. Storage area networks (SANs) including hundreds of storage devices can be used to provide storage for hosts.
SANs offer a variety of topologies and capabilities for interconnecting storage devices, subsystems, and server systems. A variety of interconnect entities, such as switches, hubs, and bridges, can be used to interconnect these components. These varying topologies and capabilities allow storage area networks to be designed and implemented that range from simple to complex configurations. Accompanying this flexibility, however, is the complexity of managing a very large number of devices and allocating storage for numerous application programs sharing these storage devices.
While the embodiments of the application are susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments are provided as examples in the drawings and detailed description. It should be understood that the drawings and detailed description are not intended to limit the embodiments to the particular form disclosed. Instead, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.